the central bank in the philippines had a huge negative equity. the central bank can go on without necessarily having a positive equity. they have all sorts of tools they can theoretically use other than having to unwind their balance sheet. they can increase reserve ratio, the interest rates they pay on excess reserves, and so on. they have a lot of control. that makes me less worried about the fed's balance sheet. not that i approve of what they are doing recently. i think they can get out of it fairly easily. >> i would add the presence of this massive fed undertaking, in almost a desperate way, gets at the underlying problem. this is not a monetary policy issue. it is a fiscal policy issue. we have a lack of leadership. the threat of the tax policy expiring all tax policy, much of which has been in place to over a decade, has been a congressionally made thing. congress refuses to work on it until now. reich lot -- likewise, they have refused to tackle the spending part, both of which get us to our debt. you have this honor lack of anything hap